UVM pushes Megabus off campus

Nov. 6, 2013

Written by

April Burbank

Free Press Staff Writer

Megabus discontinued its stop on the University of Vermont campus this week after a recent arrest of a passenger whom police said had 30 grams of crack cocaine.

“We had been trying to work on alternatives with them away from our campus for some time,” said Tom Gustafson, UVM vice president for administration and university relations. “This last bust really indicated to me that we needed to say, ‘Look, you need to find another location.’”

The Oct. 28 arrest was at least the fifth incident of suspected drug-trafficking into Burlington via Megabus in eight months.

Megabus began to use the parking lot behind the Doubletree Hotel on Williston Road in South Burlington as a short-term replacement Monday.

“We proudly carry 10,000 Burlington passengers per month and look forward to providing a new permanent arrival/departure location solution to our customers very soon,” Megabus spokesman Mike Alvich wrote in a statement.

Gustafson said that the low-cost bus service, which connects to stops including New York City and Boston, is regularly used by students as well as faculty and staff.

“It’s a valuable service,” he said. “It’s why we sort of tried as many different ways to accommodate them as we could. But in the end we just had to say, ‘You know what? This is not working.’”